Digest

Philippe Fauchet Named New Dean of School of Engineering
Philippe M. Fauchet, a recognized leader in research, teaching and innovation currently at the University of Rochester, will become dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering on July 1.
Fauchet, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and chair of Rochester’s electrical and computer engineering department, succeeds [...]

The School of Engineering celebrated the promotion of three faculty members to professor and one to associate professor at the final faculty meeting of the 2010-2011 academic year. G. Kane Jennings was promoted to professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, Clare McCabe was promoted to professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Nilanjan Sarkar was [...]

No matter what their field of scholarly pursuit, engineers and researchers need a common tool: scientific computing. To assist psychologists, sociologists, economists, biologists and others in the social, life and natural sciences develop the computer skills they need, the School of Engineering and College of Arts and Science has launched a new minor in scientific [...]

What do you do after you earn an award from NASA? If you’re the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering team, you do it again. For the second year, the Vanderbilt Aerospace Club won the PayloadDesign Award in the NASA University Student Launch Initiative. Teams from 29 universities were charged with the design, construction and [...]

Leslie Labruto, BE’11, has joined the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust as the 2011 Young Alumni Trustee. Young alumni trustees are elected by graduating and just-graduated seniors—engineering and nonengineering majors alike—to be their voice on the university’s governing board and serve as fully voting board members.
Labruto majored in civil engineering and earned a double minor [...]

John C. Gore, Hertha Ramsey Cress Chair in Medicine and professor of biomedical engineering, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honors in engineering.
Gore was named to the academy for his contributions to the development and applications of magnetic resonance and other imaging techniques in medicine. [...]

Effective August 1, the school created the Division of General Engineering, which serves as an umbrella organization for the management of the engineering science major, engineering management minor and the first-year program.
Christopher J. Rowe, assistant professor of the practice of engineering management, is serving as interim director of the division. In addition to these duties, Rowe [...]

President of GM North America Mark Reuss, BE’86, and Chevrolet Volt director of design Bob Boniface, BA’87, pulled some strings to give engineering students a sneak peak at a preproduction Chevrolet Volt. Boniface, director of the E-Flex Design Studio at General Motors Corporation, drove the innovative extended-range electric vehicle from Detroit to Nashville in October. [...]

Three longtime professors have been honored with emeritus status by the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust. J. Michael Fitzpatrick is now emeritus professor of computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, radiology and radiological sciences, and neurological surgery. Frank L. Parker is now Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, emeritus, and professor [...]

Cynthia Paschal, associate professor of biomedical engineering, has been appointed associate dean. Her responsibilities include corporate outreach, study abroad and coordination of international activities for the dean’s office; Career Center liaison; course director for the new academic component of summer internships; and working with the School of Engineering’s Committee of Visitors. Paschal has been a [...]

Junior Erin McManus, a computer science and mathematics major, was a finalist in the 2011 Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award competition. McManus was honored for research she conducted on avatars (computer users’ representations of themselves in a computer game or other electronic environment) at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (MPI) in [...]

We’re still seeking the names of those pictured in the spring 2010 “A Look Back” article. Bob Smith, BE’63, identified one alumnus, but we still want to know the others. Email engineering.magazine@vanderbilt.edu if you can help. From left, they are Lewis E. Akin (BE’59, MS’60), Professor John Dunlap (BE’53, MS’56), unknown, Professor Waverly Graham, unknown, [...]

Vanderbilt University believes its faculty produce breakthrough research that can advance society — and it’s backing them with its own money. A new program, Innovation and Discovery in Engineering And Science (IDEAS), will provide a one-time investment of more than $3 million in institutional funds to faculty researchers, 11 of whom are from the School [...]

A new national center established to secure the privacy of electronic health information will rely on experience and work from Vanderbilt engineers and medical researchers.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the creation of a new center for health information and privacy. The SHARPS center will focus on three specific subjects: electronic [...]

Professor of Biomedical Engineering Rick Haselton and Associate Professor of Chemistry David Wright have received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to research the development of a simple, low-cost diagnostic test for malaria. Haselton and Wright propose using nanoparticles and chemistry to develop a malaria infection test [...]

Mary Jean Morris isn’t predicting how long it’ll take her to clean out her office. After all, she had a long time to settle into it.
Morris retired from her position as research associate with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering on December 31, 2009, after just over 45 years at Vanderbilt—41 of those with [...]

Douglas C. Schmidt, professor of computer science and associate chair of computer science and engineering, was one of three researchers invited to speak at a Capitol Hill briefing sponsored by the congressional R&D Caucus in Washington, D.C. Schmidt, also a senior research scientist at Vanderbilt’s Institute for Software Integrated Systems, discussed the complex issues [...]

From left, first-year mechanical engineering student Bailie Borchers, junior civil engineering majors Leslie Labruto and Jessica Canfora and senior mechanical engineering major John Barrere participated in an Engineers Without Borders project in Llanchama, Peru, over winter break. The students educated the villagers on the importance of clean water treatment and worked to survey and set [...]

Frank Parker, Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, traveled to the Vatican late in 2009 to discuss the role of science in furthering world peace.
Parker, an internationally recognized expert in remediation of radioactively contaminated soil and water and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, spoke at an exclusive meeting at the [...]

Daniel M. Fleetwood, professor of electrical engineering, has been named the Olin Henry Landreth Chair in Engineering by Vanderbilt University and the School of Engineering.
This is a new chair within the school, made possible by a gift from an anonymous donor. Landreth was Vanderbilt’s first professor of engineering and its first dean of engineering.
Fleetwood chairs [...]

Vanderbilt recently launched VUconnect, a new online community for all alumni and students. VUconnect replaces the previous online service, Dore2Dore, and provides new and enhanced features. Alumni can use VUconnect to provide news, find old friends and classmates, network, share career advice and leads, locate VU chapters and sign up for Vanderbilt events.
School of Engineering [...]

Engineers from the School of Engineering’s Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE) and the Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have just become the newest residents of Nashville’s famed Music Row.
The two institutes relocated their combined 130 personnel to new facilities at 1025 16th Avenue South, expanding to approximately 40,000 square feet of lab, [...]

Alexander Heard, who served as Vanderbilt’s fifth chancellor, and guided the university from 1963 to 1982, died July 24 after a long illness. The chancellor emeritus was 92.
Under Heard’s leadership, Vanderbilt grew and prospered, adding three schools to the seven it already contained, constructing three dozen new or enlarged buildings, conducting two highly successful fundraising [...]